


The Art of Subtlety

by Lysical



Series: The Art of Love and War [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), New Teen Titans, Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Crushes, Fluff, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 18:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11408118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysical/pseuds/Lysical
Summary: Five people that knew about Kyle's crush before he did and the one person who didn't.





	The Art of Subtlety

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever ship fic i'm shocked i ever got here but here we go
> 
> for an anon prompt on tumblr, who wanted jaykyle so much they asked me, and I was basically like 'bro i have no idea what i'm doing but i'll try?' 
> 
> and here we are
> 
> Continuity Note: This takes place in an AU continuity where Jason never dies and has his own Titans group and it's all very happy I've thought about it a lot.

_One_

It was maybe the most ironic thing about it, that Connor Hawke was the first to know.

Connor, who had yet to ever tell the difference between someone hitting on him and just being nice. Connor Hawke, who freaked whenever it was pointed it out to him after the fact. This time it was a girl who approached them at the mall and engaged Connor in a lengthy discussion about the movies they were browsing, until Kyle had cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows and Connor got the hint.

And proceeded to freak out.

“I don’t freak out,” Connor said, for the countless time, frowning as Kyle nearly laughed himself sick. “I get mildly perplexed.”

“Which is ‘Connor’ for freaking out.”

“No, it means mildly perplexed.” Connor sighed, glancing furtively over to where the girl had gone back to her friends. “Why can’t people just be more obvious?”

Kyle shrugged, picking up one of the movies and reading the back. “Most of us pick up the social cues just fine. I blame your wasted youth in a monastery.”

“It wasn’t wasted,” Connor said, knocking his shoulder against Kyle’s. “Besides, it’s not just me. Jason hasn’t noticed your giant crush on him yet.”

Kyle dropped the movie. “Wait—Wha—”

Connor blinked at him. “Well, you’re being much less subtle than that girl was, of course I noticed.”

There had only been a few times in Kyle’s life that he’d been completely lost for words. Like the time he’d had to explain to his mom that a vaguely sentient ring had chosen him to be a space cop and the Green Lantern Corps did not care that he was underage and should be in school.

“That’s—that’s not true.” Kyle crouched and picked up the movie, shoving it back onto the shelf. “Jason’s cool, but he’s _Jason_. You need more practice at this stuff, Connor.”

Connor, at that moment, looked about as skeptical as his mom had.

 

_Two_

Clapping her hands together, Donna gave them all a beaming grin. “Team building, guys.”

In Kyle’s opinion, the collective groan that went around the room showed that they were pretty good at the ‘teamwork’ part already.

“If we have to do trust falls again, I’m jumping out the window and I don’t want anyone to save me,” Jason said, sinking down in his seat.

Donna gave him a quelling look. “Don’t make me get your big brother in here.”

“Trust falls, Donna,” Jason muttered, slumped down so low he nearly disappeared under the table.

Kyle grinned, biting his lip to keep from laughing when Donna turned her look on him next. Across the table, Connor caught his eye and raised an eyebrow, and Kyle suddenly found the wall very interesting.

Connor was wrong. Jason was funny, super smart and had a nice smile, but Kyle had only recently even learned his real identity or seen his face properly. Kyle appreciated him in a very friend-like manner.

“We need to pair up for this game,” Donna said, ignoring Jason’s continued muttering. “There’s an odd number, so one of you will be with me, to start. We’ll rotate after. Jason and Eddie pair up, and Connor, you go with Rose. That leaves Kyle with me.”

“I can toss you out the window if you like,” Eddie said to Jason, grinning at him.

“Might be preferable,” Jason muttered.

Donna pulled some blindfolds out of her pockets and passed them around. “One of you will be blind and the other will lead. We’re going to navigate from here down to the ground floor.”

Eddie nudged Jason in the side and waggled his eyebrows, nodding to the window. Jason smirked.

Donna cleared her throat. “Eddie, Connor, you guys are up first to be blind.”

“Please don’t walk me into a wall deliberately,” Connor said to Rose, tying the blindfold on with a long-suffering sigh.

“I make no promises,” Rose said. “Sometimes I mix up left and right. Can’t be helped.”

Connor sighed again.

“Uh.” Eddie looked from the blindfold in his hands to the smirk on Jason’s face. “This is going to end badly for me.”

“It’s all about trust,” Jason said, sing-song, suddenly more enthused about their game. He shared a wicked smirk with Rose.

Kyle blinked as a blindfold swung in front of his face, dangling from Donna’s hand.

“You’re up first,” she said, and glanced towards Jason as he left the room, directing Eddie into the door frame on the way out. “Have you told him yet?”

“Told him what?” Kyle asked, feeling his face flush. He hurried to cover it by tying the blindfold on.

From just behind him, he could hear Donna laugh.

 

_Three_

It wasn’t denial if nothing was going on.

That was what Kyle told himself, feeling distinctly hunted because it seemed like every time he spaced out for a moment he found himself staring at Jason, with Connor giving him those _looks_ , or Donna’s lips quirking just so.

He wasn’t watching Jason, really. Jason was just very...bright, it attracted his attention when he had nothing else to concentrate on, and Jason’s fighting style was vicious but flowing, and it was interesting to watch.

And draw.

Kyle stared down at his notebook, flipping through page after page of sketch of Jason, and wondered if this poleaxed feeling was anything like how Connor felt on a regular basis. If so, he was going to stop teasing him immediately because he tried not to be a terrible friend if he could help it.

He was sitting on the roof of his house, a familiar place to escape to and draw the landscape, and he’d been sketching for over an hour and instead of the city in the distance he’d ended up with another drawing of Jason, swinging between rooftops.

“What’cha got there,” a voice said.

Kyle screamed.

Hal Jordan started laughing, dropping down from the sky to land just in front of him. His eyes drifted to the notebook and he smirked. “Calm down, kid. Just doing the mentorly thing and checking up on you. Robin, huh? Well, I won’t judge your taste. I promise I’ll protect you when Batman finds out.”

Kyle’s face felt like it was on fire. He scrambled to his feet and tucked the sketchbook away under his arm. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, with as much dignity as he could muster, and hurried away. At the edge of the roof he turned back to glare at Hal. “And stop hitting on my mom!”

 

_Four_

Kyle was not ready to admit that Connor was right.

He didn’t have a crush on Jason, it was just that now Connor had given him the idea and it was making him self-conscious and awkward and it wasn’t like he had paid that much attention to Jason before Connor had brought it up, surely.

Surely.

He resolutely ignored the notebook of drawings that had started long before Connor had brought the topic up, the way he got tongue-tied whenever he spoke to Jason lately, and the way that Connor had started to smirk at him whenever he was within five feet of Jason, in or out of costume, like he was taking personal satisfaction out of the shoe being on the other foot.

He wasn’t in denial, it was just a...fleeting attraction. He could admit that much. Nothing serious.

It would all blow over quickly.

The way his heart leapt into his throat when Jason went down hard on a mission was just normal concern for a teammate. Going on a near-suicidal flight through enemy fire was the only logical thing to do, to get to Jason in time and shield him with the ring, even if maybe another teammate might have been closer. Clinging to his hand the entire flight back to the Tower was...after-effects of various near death experiences.

Dick spent the entire flight back alternating between fussing over his brother and shooting Kyle looks that made his stomach drop.

He had the horrible feeling he was going to get the shovel talk.

The dread increased tenfold when they got back to the Tower and Dick took him aside after they got Jason settled in the infirmary.

“Nothing is going on, I swear.”

Dick quirked an eyebrow. “Sure. Thank you for what you did today, Kyle. You saved my little brother’s life.”

“Oh.” Kyle cleared his throat, looking away awkwardly. “Uh, no problem.”

When he looked back, Dick’s expression was mildly amused, before it shifted, going suddenly stern.

“If you break his heart, I’ll break your face.”

 

_Five_

Kyle thought that his home would be a respite from the increasingly amused looks and pointed comments of the Titans. It was just his mom, and she generally preferred to know as little as possible about what he did as a Green Lantern, saying that if she knew more than the barest details she’d become a giant ball of anxiety and ground him until he was thirty.

She settled for calling up Hal Jordan every time he was even mildly hurt and ripping him a new one.

It had been funny up until the flirting had started.

They were on the couch after dinner, his mom watching television while he sketched in his notebook.

His mother made an amused sound. “Oh, look. It’s that boy you like.”

Kyle’s head snapped up. “What?”

“The Gotham boy,” she replied, nodding to the television, which showed a brief glimpse of Batman and Robin taking to the rooftops in Gotham. “Honestly, Kyle. I’m not blind. You got your taste in men from me.”

For several moments he could only stare at her in absolute silence.

Then: “Uh, that’s got to be wrong, okay, because my taste in men is flawless, and _you_ go around flirting with Hal Jordan.”

Yeah, okay, fine. He could admit it.

He had a crush on Jason.

How was it that he was the last to know?

 

_And One Person Who Didn’t…_

The problem was that now that Kyle had admitted to himself that he had a giant, obvious crush on Jason Todd, he had to actually, you know, do something about it.

Easier said than done.

The first problem was getting him alone with no witnesses. It had to be away from the Tower, because Kyle was becoming increasingly aware of all the attention that was focused on him now, and he swore there was at least one betting pool about him and Jason and he wasn’t playing into their hands.

If they were betting on him, they could damn well work for their rewards.

Eventually, one Saturday afternoon he found the opportunity. The older Titans were out on a mission they deemed too risky for their new members, and Eddie and Rose had started a match of table tennis that was ramping up into a grudge match, and they’d roped Connor in to referee. Jason had disappeared off to the library in the city, as he often did, and Kyle was free to track him down and…do something.

The plan was incomplete but Kyle was better at winging it, really.

He found Jason over in the fiction section, running a hand along the spines of the books on the shelves. He frowned when he saw Kyle approach.

“Did something happen?”

“Nah.” Kyle shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “I, uh, actually wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Jason cocked his head to the side. “What about?”

Even the way he tilted his head was adorable and Kyle really needed to get it together and not like...melt into a puddle of pathetic puppy love or something, he wasn’t a kid. He could do this. He could be smooth, he could be debonair.

“I like you,” he said instead of any of that, and then when Jason stared at him, brows furrowed: “Like like you.”

He really wanted to rewind time, just a few seconds, so he could go back to a point in his life where he’d not confessed his crush by using words better suited to a playground.

“Me?” Jason asked, sounding confused, and then he actually looked over his shoulder like there was going to be someone else there that Kyle was confessing his huge embarrassing crush on and Kyle was absolutely sure, in that very moment, that a single more endearing person had never existed on the entire planet and—

Yeah okay, Connor had been completely right, from the very start. Kyle was absolutely  _gone_.

“Yes, you.” Kyle took one hand out of his pocket and scratched the back of his head. “It’s fine if you don’t—yeah, it’s not a big deal, I mean I wouldn’t let it like, get in the way of the team and all that, I just wanted to like...get it out there and be honest and—”

Jason bit his lip, and it was like a magnet drawing Kyle’s attention. God, he hoped the flush on his face wasn’t obvious. Jason looked away, shuffling his feet. “We can get coffee sometime, like...a date?”

Somewhere, a choir of angels was singing.

Kyle was pretty sure his nod was so enthusiastic he wrenched something in his neck. “Yes! That would be great.”

It was still awkward, but it was awkwardness laced with _hope_.

“We can go now, if you want.”

Kyle had never agreed to anything faster in his entire life.

On the way out of the library, Jason took his hand and linked their fingers together.

Kyle was pretty sure his face was flushed a very unattractive scarlet, but it was still the best day ever.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm proud of this tbh
> 
> my tumblr is [here](http://lysical.tumblr.com)


End file.
